Three appeals courts found the ban unconstitutional and ordered the government not to enforce it, primarily because it lacks an exception for a woman’s health. Pro-choice groups charge its language is “so vague and overbroad that it gives doctors insufficient notice of what medical conduct is prohibited and what is legal.”

“Though more seniors are enrolling” in the new Medicare prescription drug plan each month, they’re liking it less and less. Some 45 percent of seniors view the plan unfavorably today compared to 32 percent last August, according to the Kaiser Foundation. Also: Health care spending on track to consume 20 percent of U.S. GDP.

Right-wing supporters argued earlier this year that the Constitution is a technicality, and a clerical error in the Senate budget reconciliation bill making it different than the House version was no big deal. But three years ago, the leadership authorized $221,000 to update “How Our Laws Made,” a report which clearly states, “A bill cannot become a law of the land until it has been approved in identical form by both Houses of Congress.”

. . .

“How important is a war-on-terror intelligence asset — important enough that his clear complicity in genocideshould be overlooked?” A confidential UN document identifying “the 17 individuals most responsible for war crimes in Darfur” lists Salah Gosh, the head of Sudanese intelligence who was flown into the United States by the CIA last year in an effort to foster a “close intelligence partnership” between the two countries.

Instability and violence continue just 600 miles off the Florida shores where Haitians are still attempting to establish a viable government and the rule of law. The way forward? President-elect Preval needs to put the national interest ahead of his own interests, and the U.S. needs to offer its support.

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Police are investigating why 70 percent of a Hell’s Angels biker gang chapter were certified as depressed and found qualified to receive state sickness benefits — all by the same doctor.